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DISTRICT AFFAIRS. 

ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BY 

CT . J. COOMBS, ESQ., 

AT 

ODD FELLOWS' HALL, WASHINGTON, 
MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 19, 1873. 



Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens : While I propose, this evening / 
to discuss matters purely local to this District, I deem it pertinent to my pur- 
pose to refer briefly to the platforms of the two national parties now canvas- 
sing for the Presidency. 

It has been said that there is a striking resemblance between these plat- 
forms. I will point out one essential difference, however, which I regard as 
of momentous importance to the people of this District. 

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT. 

The platform of the Cincinnati and Baltimore Conventions has an em- 
phatic declation in favor of " local self-government, with impartial suffrage." 

The platform of the Philadelphia Convention contains no such declaration. 
It is a plank which the builders of that platform utterly rejected, because 
the party to stand upon it was well known to be in favor of the centralization 
of power in the Federal Government, and was striving to limit, rather than 
enlarge, the right of local self-government. 

No people in any part of the United States have reason to deplore the 
deprivation of this great American right more deeply than we, of the 
District of Columbia. If we have not yet suffered from the deprivation of 
this right as deeply as the people of South Carolina and some other Southern 
States, it is simply because we have not been deprived of it as long as they. 
The time of our calamity has not yet come. While the despots who have 
been placed in power over us are lavishingly expending and squandering in 
our midst the millions for which they have mortgaged our houses and lands, 
everything goes merrily as a marriage bell. We are now in the condition of 
the Prodigal Son, when he was squandering his patrimony in luxurious and 
riotous living. We are rapidly approaching his condition, when, having 
exhausted all his resources, he was fain to eat of the husks upon which the 
swine were fed. And when we reach that point we shall owe our destitu- 
tion to nothing else but the deprivation of the right of "local self-govern- 
ment." 

PAST AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE DISTRICT. 

Under our old municipal corporations, the people of Washington and 
Georgetown enjoyed the right of local self-government in a comparatively 
large degree. Each had a legislative body consisting of two branches, all 
the members of which were elected by the people. Each had an executive offi- 
cer, called a mayor, who was also elected by the people. The, people elected 
all the other important corporation officers, viz : collector, register, surveyor, 
and assessors. No tax could be levied, nor could any public debt or liability 
be created, except in pursuance of an ordinance passed by a legislative body 
composed wholly of representatives elected by the people. No new office could 
be created, except by the same authority, or by Congress. 



ingtoniana 



HISTORY OF THE " ORGANIC ACT. ,r 

But in an evil hour a large number of the people of the District took it 
into their heads to petition Congress for a new form of government, con- 
ferring upon the people, in a still larger measure, the right of local self- 
government. I say in an evil hour, not because the system under which Ave 
were then living was by any means perfect ; not because a better system 
could not have been devised, but because the result demonstrates that it is 
sometimes better " to bear the evils that we have than fly to others that we 
know not of." 

You all recollect the great popular movement in favor of a territorial gov- 
ernment, in the winter and spring of 1870. At an immense mass meeting held 
in Lincoln Hall, in February of that year, it was resolved to apply to Congress 
for a new form of Government, and a committee of one hundred and fifty 
citizens was appointed to urge the matter before Congress. That committee 
appointed a sub-committee of twenty-one, (of which I had the honor to be a 
member,) to prepare a bill to be submitted to Congress. We did prepare a 
bill, which was afterwards submitted to the committee of one hundred and 
fifty, and, after mature consideration and discussion, it was amended in some 
of its details and adopted. /"Itwas then presented to Congress, as embody- 
ing the system of government whi ch the people desired- 
It provided for abolishing the then existing municipal corporations, and 
putting the whole District under one homogeneous local government. It 
provided for a Governor and Secretary of the District, both to be elected by 
the people. It provided for a Legislative Assembly consisting of two houses, 
all the members of which were to be elected by the people. It also provided 
for a Delegate in Congress, to be elected by the people. It left it to the 
representatives of the people in the Legislative Assembly to prescribe by 
law what subordinate District officers we should have, and how they should 
be chosen, as well as to define their powers and duties. It created no Board 
of Public Works, that being supposed peculiarly within the province of the 
Legislative Assembly, chosen by the people. In short, it provided a form 
of government essentially republican or democratic in its principles, con- 
ferring upon the people the right of local self-government in as ample a 
degree as any one could desire. 

HOW THE BILE WAS CLANDESTINELY CHANGED BY THE TRICKERY OF 

THE RING. 

This bill promptly passed the Senate, with a few immaterial amendments, 
in the spring of 1870, in ample time to have passed the Hou^e also, at the 
same session, if its progress had not been arrested by the clandestine inter- 
ference of a few men who now compose the head and front of the Ring that is 
fattening upon the fruits of their treachery. These men succeeded in in- 
ducing the chairman of the House Committee on the District to cause the. 
consideration of the bill by the House to be postponed until the next session. 
Thus these schemers obtained ample time to work upon the commit . 
•'ways that are dark," (which we now better understand,) and to get l lie bill 
moulded into a form to suit their own nefarious purposes. Towards th 
of the next session it passed the House, changed by amendment- into the bill 
of abominations Ave are iioav living under; and these same clandestine lobby- 
ists managed to get it hurried through the Senate, before one in a thousand of 
the people of the District knew of the radical alterations that had been made 
in it. 

The bill, as it passed the Senate, was a bill emanating from, and approved 
by, the people of the District. As modified in the House, it became a bill 
such as not one in five thousand of the people had ever thought of asking for, 
or would have Avillingly accepted; the mere work of some half-dozen under- 
handed tricksters, who were scheming for their own personal aggrandize- 
ment, at the expense of the people. 

By the amendments Which these designing wire-pullers procured to be 
made in the House, the people were robbed of the right of electing their 
Governor and Secretary, and the appointment of those officers Avas conferred 
upon the President. The right of the people to a legislature of their own 



choosing was taken away, and a legislative assembly created, the members of 
the superior branch of which are all appointed by the President. What a 
misnomer to call these appointees of the President representatives of the 
people ! What a delusion to imagine that the people of the District have 
any power to make their own local laws ! Why the representatives of the 
people are utterly powerless to pass a law for the repair of a town pump, 
without the consent of a co-ordinate body whose members are all appointed 
by the President, and the further consent of a Governor, also appointed by 
the same authority. 

The bill, as it passed the Senate, was emphatically the people's bill. After 
it had passed the Senate, in the form which the people desked, not dream- 
ing that its fundamental principles would be changed, they paid no further 
attention to it. Neither the committee of one hundred and fifty, nor the 
sub-committee of twenty-one, was called together; and no member of 
either committee, except Alexander R. Shephard, and a few of his co-con- 
spirators, had any notice of the changes that were being clandestinely 
urged. It was not until the publication of the fraudulent bill, known as the 
"organic act," after it had become a law, that the people discovered the 
gross fraud that had been perpetrated upon them — that they had asked for 
a fish and been given a serpent. 

AN ABSOLUTE DESPOTISM. 

But the worst feature interpolated into the people's bill, by these secret 
schemers and tricksters, is that creating the absolute and irresponsible des- 
potism known as the Board of Public Works. This Board, consisting of 
five members, (including the Governor,) all appointed by the President, is 
exercising powers, and is upheld by the Administration in the exercise of 
powers over the property and material interests of the people of the District 
more arbitrary and more oppressive than any despot on the face of the 
civilized earth exercises over the property of his subjects. By the use of 
just such powers as they have been and now are exercising, and are upheld 
in by the Administration and its partisans, they can encumber the property 
of the District by a pxiblic indebtedness equal to its full value. They can so 
direct their so-called " comprehensive system of improvements "as to ruin 
the property of one man and increase tenfold the value of the property of 
another. When it is considered that some of the members of the Board are 
the largest speculators in real estate in this District, we see at once what an 
engine for plunder this power becomes in their hands. But the worst of all 
is, under the system of disbursements and accounts which they have adopted, 
they may appropriate one-fourth, or any proportion they please, of all the 
public funds which may come into their hands, to their own private use, and 
it will be impossible to detect and expose the fraud. This I will demonstrate 
before I get through. 

I do not admit that the Board of Public Works ha,s any legal right to ex- 
ercise powers so extensive and arbitrary as those I have just adverted to. 
But so long as they are upheld in the exercise of such powers by the Adminis- 
tration which created them, and which alone lias power to displace them, 
what difference does it make to the people whether these powers are usurped 
or legitimately belong to them ? 

If we appeal to the courts for relief, we must go before judges appointed 
by the same Presidential power, in whose selection the people of the Dis- 
trict have had no voice ; strangers and foreigners to the people of the Dis- 
trict, who have been imported from distant States to hold the scales of justice 
over us. Under these circumstances it would be strange indeed if some of 
these judges should not strongly incline to do the will of the Federal au- 
thorities by which they were "created and are sustained, and of the oligar- 
chies appointed to rule over us by the same Federal authorities, rather than 
to protect the rights of the people, to whom they are indebted for nothing, 
of whom they are wholly independent, and with whom they have few 
sympathies. I do no not apply this remark to the personnel of our courts. 
I am merely speaking of the natural tendency of the judicial system under 
which we live. 



THE WHITEWASHING COMMITTEE. 

If we apply to Congress for relief, our complaint is referred to a partisan 
committee, which this intriguing Board, with its millions of the people's 
money to operate with, finds it easy to manipulate so as to stifle any fair in- 
vestigation. 

I desire here to remark that I do not accuse either House of Congress, as 
a body, with acting unfairly towards the people of the District in the late 
investigation. Every one familiar with Congressional proceedings knows 
that, in such an investigation, it is only necessary to secure the co-operation 
or connivance of the committee having the matter in charge to prevent the 
investigation from being carried beyond the committee room. Thus, in the 
late investigation, a majority of the committee being captured by the Board 
of Public Works in advance, it was easy for their senior counsel (Eldridge) 
and their junior counsel (Chipman) by dilatory questioning of the witnesses 
to protract the investigation into the very last days of the session, and then 
bring in their whitewashing report when too late for the House to give it a 
moment's consideration. It was the majority of the committee, and not the 
House of Representatives, that stifled the investigation and suppressed the 
most damning facts ever proved against any set of conspirators to defraud 
the people ; and your own Delegate contributed, to the utmost of his skill 
and ability, to produce this result. 

ONE YEAR'S EXPERIENCE. 

Fellow-citizens, we have now had a t little more than one year's experience 
under this total deprivation of the right of local self-government ; and what 
have been the practical results? >.> 

When this new government was impbsed upon us, the public indebtedness 
of the whole District amounted to about $3,400,000. What does it amount 
to now? Can anybody tell? Does Governor Cooke or any member of the 
Board of Public Works know ? If they do, they keep that knowledge to 
themselves. In the language of Lord Dundreary, the amount of our public 
debt is "one of those things that no fellow can find out." 

Every intelligent man, however, who has consulted such sources of in- 
formation as are accessible to the public, knows very well that it far exceeds 
ten millions of dollars. 

What equivalent have we received for this enormous increase of our pub- 
lic debt? We have had a great deal of digging down and filling up of our 
public streets ; in many instances the digging down and filling up both hav- 
ing been done in precisely the same places. In some cases the streets have 
been improved, and in some they have been damaged. In many portions of 
the city private property has been damaged to a fearful extent. Here a 
street cut down, from six to twelve feet below T the foundations of 
the houses, and there a street filled up so as to bury the first stories.. 
And this in a city where there was scarcely an inconveniently steep grade 
within its limits. In fact, the gently undulating surface of the ground 
throughout our city was one of the natural beauties of its site ; and no one but 
a vandal or a charlatan would attempt to reduce our streets to a dead level, 
if it could be done without expense. 

Our beautiful shade-trees, the growth of a third or half a century, and 
which cannot be replaced in less time, have been laid low-, and reduced to 
heaps of blighted and shriveled brush-wood. 

THE FOUR MILLION LOAN EXHAUSTED. 

The proceeds of the four million loan are more than exhausted, and the 
Board of Public Works have now at their command only what little may re- 
main unexpended of the appropriations made by Congress at its last session, 
to aid in improving the streets in front of United States property, and such 
collections as are being made of special taxes levied upon private property. . 
It is said they are also using this general revenue arising from the current 
collection of general taxes. Not one dollar of the general revenue, however, 
has ever been appropriated to the use of the Board, (so far as the public has 
been advised,) and if the District Treasurer is handing over any portion of 



it to them, be is doing so without warrant of law, and will have a nice account 
to settle when the District government shall pass into the hands of men hav- 
ing any regard for law. 

Do you inquire how I know that the proceeds of the four-million loan are 
already exhausted? I will tell you how you can all satisfy yourselves on 
that point. 

If you will refer to page 450 of the evidence taken before the investigating 
committee, you will there find a statement, signed by James A. Magruder, 
as treasurer of the Board, showing that 'up to the 6th of March the Board 
had paid out of that fund the sum of $2,007,911. The four-million loan, at 
ninety-four cents on the dollar, {the price at which the bonds were sold,) only 
brought into the treasury the sum of $3,760,000. Deduct from this the sum 
of $2,007,911 paid out of that fund previous to the 6th of March, and you will 
find that there remained in the treasury at that date only $1,752,089. Now, 
compare the work clone since the 6th of March Avith that done previously, or 
compare the number of men and carts employed on the public works since 
that date with those employed previously, and you will have convincing 
proof, not only that the whole proceeds of the four-million loan have been 
exhausted, but that a large sum from some other source has been expended 
also ; or a large sum is due for work already performed. 

And yet the Board is commencing jobs and giving out contracts for work 
that will cost many millions more before completion. I know of one con- 
tract given out a few weeks ago for two hundred thousand yard of wood pave- 
ment," at $3.50 per yard, which will amount to seven hundred thousand dollars. 
The work under this contract is now going on, and its proportion to the 
whole work going on in the District is so small that if all the men and carts 
engaged upon it were to leave the District to-morrow they would scarcely 
be missed. It is safe to estimate that five millions or" dollars (in addition to 
the amount already expended) will not complete the work now actually com- 
menced or put under contract. 

Where is the money to come from to pay for this work ? The Board say 
they hope to get large appropriations from Congress to help them through. 
But suppose they don't get these large appropriations, what then ? The 
whole expense must come upon the property of the people, and every poor 
man must be sold out of house and home to pay for the luxury of level 
streets, with pavements fit for the pleasure-carriages of the wealthy to roll 
over. Level and smooth streets are a luxury no doubt ; but the people must 
have something else to make them happy. They must have houses to live 
in, food to eat, and clothing to wear, as well as schools for the education of 
their children. If we put all our resources, present and prospective, into 
street and sewer improvements, how are the people to provide themselves 
with all these other indispensable necessaries of life? The Board of Publie 
Works act as if they thought smooth, level streets were the only one neces- 
sity of life. They say, in effect, seek not houses or lands ; give no thought 
as to what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be 
clothed ; but seek ye first smooth and level streets, and all these other things 
shall be added unto you. But this is not the condition on which the Saviour 
promised these necessaries. His injunction was : " Seek ye first the King- 
dom of Heaven, and all these things shall be added unto you.*' _ But coal 
tar streets and wooden pavements do not quite constitute the Kingdom of 
Heaven. If they did, we might well cry out to the people of Washington, 
"Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand ! " 

I will tell you one resource which the Board of Public Works think they 
have, and of which they intend to avail themselves. They intend to go on 
with their " comprehensive system of improvements," and charge the whole 
expense upon property in particular districts and localities where the work 
is done. And here is the authority under which they expect to do it. The 
law under which they have heretofore charged one-third of the expense of 
improvements upon adjoining property is to be found in the 37th section of 
the organic act. It is in these words : 

"They (the Board of Public Works) shall disburse upon their warrant all 
moneys appropriated, &c, * * * for the improvement of streets, avenues, 



alleys, and sewers, and roads and bridges, and shall assess in snch manner 
as may be prescribed by law, upon the property adjoining and to be espe- 
cially benefited by the improvements authorized by law and made by them, 
a reasonable proportion of the cost of the improvement, not exceeding one- 
third of such cost, which sum shall be collected as all other taxes are col- 
lected." 

The Board have discovered that away back in the 20th section of the same 
act there is a clause by which the limitation of the rate of taxation to $2 on 
every $100 of the cash value of the property of the District may be success- 
fully evaded. That clause is in these words : 

"Nor shall lands or other property in said District be liable to a higher 
tax in any one year, for all general objects, Territorial and municipal, than 
two dollars on every hundred dollars of the cash value thereof; but special 
taxes may be levied in particular sections, wards or districts, for their particular 
local improvements.'''' 

Here, they say, is authority to tax property for particular local improve- 
ments, without any limitation. All you have to do is, to call the improvements 
"particular local improvements " of the district in which they are made, 
and you may tax the property of said district to any extent you please, even 
to the extent of fifty or seventy-five cents on the dollar. 

I must confess that if this is undertaken there will be a much more plau- 
sible pretence of law for it than there is for most of the acts which the Board 
of Public Works have been doing. 

That the Board does contemplate carrying out this system of robbery I 
am perfectly satisfied from information confidentially obtained from a source 
which I deem reliable. 

I called the attention of the investigating committee to this construction 
that might be put upon the organic act, and asked them to report a bill to 
preclude it. But I might as well have applied to the Geneva Convention for 
any safeguards against the plundering of the people, as to that committee. 

Of course it will require an act of the Legislative Assembly to impose 
these special taxes upon the several districts. But if the next Legislature 
shall be as subservient to the dictation of the Board as the two former Legis- 
latures have been, they will find no difficulty in getting an act passed to 
carry into effect this iniquitous scheme. And I warn you now, fellow-citi- 
zens, that the only way that you can prevent its consummation will be to 
elect men to the next Legislative Assembly who will represent the interests 
of the people, and not become the mere pliant tools of the Board of Public 
Works. 

USURPATION AND LAWLESSNESS. 

While, as I have shown, this Board has, in one year, expended more than 
four millions of the people's money, I aver that they have expended by far 
the greater portion of said sum without a shadow of lawful authority. 

The thirty-seventh section of the organic act expressly provides that " said 
Board of Public Works shall have no power to make contracts to bind said 
District to the payment of any sums of money, except in pursuance of appro- 
pnations made by law, and not until such appropriations shall have been made.'''' 

I aver that more than three-fourths of all the money expended by the 
Board, in prosecuting their "comprehensive system of improvements," 
have been expended without any appropriation whatever to the objects on 
which the expenditures have been made. 

The first appropriation act passed by the Legislative Assembly was the 
four million act of July 10, 1871. The first section of that act appropriates 
four millions of dollars, " until the expiration of the first fiscal quarter after 
the adjournment of the next regular session of the Legislative Assembly, for 
the improvement of the streets, avenues, alleys, and roads in the District of 
Columbia, aud for the construction and repair of sewers, bridges, and other 
public works therein ; " and the same section expressly requires that said 
money shall be expended "as fully as may be practicable and consistent with 
the public interest, in conformity with the plan of improvement submitted 



to the Legislature by the Board of Public Works of said District, in its com- 
munication bearing date June 20, 1871." 

The very next clause of said act provides ' ' that in no case shall the said Board 
enter into a contract for any work or improvement, the cost of wliicli shall ex- 
ceed the amount estimated for in its aforesaid plan, less twenty per centum of said 
estimate.'''' 

Could anything be plainer than this? Four millions of dollars are appro- 
priated, to be expended on the specific improvements mentioned and esti- 
mated for in said plan, and " as fully as practicable and consistent with the 
public interest," in conformity with said plan. If the act had stopped here, 
there might have been some room to cavil as to how far the Board could de- 
viate from said plan, in respect to the kind and character of the work. The 
fair and reasonable construction would be that, while the Board could no^ 
go outside of the plan, they might make changes in the character of the work 
specified therein. 

For instance, if a wood pavement was specified in the plan, for a particu- 
lar street, the Board Avould have power to substitute a stone or concrete 
pavement, and vice versa. But the clause immediately following limits the 
appropriation as to cost beyond the possibility of doubt or dispute. "In 
Tio case shall the said Board enter into a contract for any work or improve- 
ment, the cost of which shall exceed the amount estimated for in its afore- 
said plan, less twenty per centum of said estimate." If this restriction has 
any meaning or effect whatever, it means, first, that no contract shall be 
entered into for any work or improvement which is not specified and esti- 
mated for in said plan ; and second, that however the character of the work 
may be varied, the cost shall not, in any case, exceed the amount estimated 
for in the plan, less twenty per centum. 

In the face of these plain and unmistakable provisions of the statute, it 
seems almost incredible that the Board has expended the greater proportion 
of the four million appropriation on works or improvements not specified or 
in any way alluded to in the plan of improvement incorporated into said act. 
But it is even so, incredible as it may appear. 

This plan was made out by the Board of Public Works, printed, and 
submitted to the Legislature June 20, 1871, as is recited in said four-million 
act. It was made out in tabular form, specifying, first, the street, road, or 
sewer proposed to be improved ; second, the kind of improvement to be 
made ; third, the number of yards or feet of excavation, pavement, curbing, 
or sewer, (as the case might be ;) fourth, the estimated cost per yard or per 
foot ; and fifth, the total estimated cost of the improvement. In some 
cases, however, especially in the case of country roads, the plan was less 
specific, mentioning only the road to be improved and the' estimated cost of 
the improvement. For instance, here is all that appears in the plan in ref- 
erence to the 

SEVENTH-STREET ROAD. 

"Improving Seventh street road $2,500.' , 

The appropriation Avas twenty per cent, less than the above estimate of 
$2,500, or just two thousand dollars. JS"o man who has the slightest regard 
for the truth will venture to assert that the Legislature has ever appropriated 
one cent more than two thousand dollars for the improvement of" that road. 
Even the whitewashing committee of the House did not venture any such 
assertion. It follows, therefore, that every dollar expended on said road 
beyond two thousand dollars was unauthorized by law, and a criminal mis- 
application of the public money. 

Now, how much do you suppose has been expended upon that road? I 
answer from the record. On page 452 of the printed record of the testi- 
mony, taken before the late committee of investigation, is a tabular state- 
ment, emanating from the Board of Public Works, of expenditures in 
Washington county, up to and including March 11, 1872, in which the ex- 
penditure on the Seventh street road is put down at $95,061.02 ; and Mr. 
Carpenter, the engineer in charge, testifies (April 12, 1871,) that it will cost 
$70,000 more to complete the work. Thus, according to their own showing, 



8 

they have incurred the expenditure of more than $165,000, on an appro- 
priation of $2,000, or $163,000 in excess of the appropriation. But, as a 
matter of fact, the road will never be completed on Mr. Carpenter's esti- 
mate. The $70,000 has doubtless been expended before tbis time, and it 
will require at least $70,000 more to complete the road, making a total cost 
of some $235,000. As the road is less than five miles in Length, it will cost 
.something more than $47,000 per mile, which is just about the average cost 
per mile of all the railroads in the United States. 

Now, what is the use of a Legislature, or of a law limiting the expendi- 
tures of the Board to appropriations made by the Legislature, if the Board 
can expend, on a particular road or street, a sum equal to the appropriation 
multiplied by eighty-two ? Two thousand dollars were all that the Legislature 
thought ought to be expended on the Seventh street road, and all that they 
appropriated for that purpose. The Board had no more right to take any 
further sum out of the treasury to expend upon that road, than they had 
to take it out of the vaults of any bank in the District for that purpose. In 
either case the act would be one of downright robbery ; the only difference 
being that in the one case it would be the robbery of a bank, and in the other 
case it is a robbery of the District treasury. 

That the Legislature is the only department of the District government 
having any power to appropriate public money for improvements, or for any 
other purpose, is just as clear as the English language can make it. Is it 
probable that if a proposition has been made in the Legislature to appro- 
priate $165,000 to impi'ove a road from the city to Alexander Shepherd's 
farm, it would have received any favor? 

Fellow-citizens, this is but one instance out of many,. of the lawless expen- 
diture of the public money by the Board of Public Works. I might cite 
many cases where they have expended even larger sums of money, without 
any appropriation whatever, if time and your patience would permit. I might 
call your attention to the so-called improvements west of the War Depart- 
ment, where streets were cut down from four to ten feet before any appro- 
priation was made for the purpose, and before the Legislature ever met ; where 
from three to four hundred thousand dollars have been expended without 
a shadow of lawful authority, and damage has been done to private prop- 
erty, probably, to nearly as large an amount ; where the only private prop- 
erty benefited, and (with some trifling exceptions) the only property not 
seriously damaged, was a block of new houses owned by the vice-president 
of the Board, and which were apparently built with a view to this change of 
grade. 

I might refer to the Washington canal, on which several hundred thousand 
dollars have been expended, not only without authority of law, but in fla- 
grant violation of law, and on whieh hundreds of thousands more must be 
expended before the work undertaken can be completed. 

I might call your attention to Tiber creek sewer, the appropriation for which 
was $48 per foot, and apart of which has been put under contract at $102.50 
per foot, and the whole cost of which (11,000 feet) will exceed the appropria- 
tion by the sum of $599,500. 

Wherever any public work has been commenced or put under contract 
similar discrepancies between the appropriations and the expenditures 
might be pointed out. 

When Mr. Shephard was on the witness stand, before the investigating 
committee, with the " plan " or schedule before him, he was invited to point 
out a single instance in which work specified in the schedule had been clone 
in accordance with the estimate ; and he replied, " I will not undertake to 
do it now." And he never will undertake to do it. 

USURPATION OF LEGISLATIVE POWER. 

By the 5th section of the organic act, "the legislative power and authority*' 
in the District of Columbia is expressly vested in the Legislative. Assembly;. 
Yet the Board of Public Works, from the beginning of its career, has exer- 
cised legislative powers of the gravest character. 

I have only time to poiut out one subject in respect to which they have- 



usurped such powers. It is impossible to conceive of a power more purely 
legislative than that of creating public offices, and prescribing the duties 
thereof. To legislate is to make laws, and surely no one can exercise any 
official functions without authority of law. To create a public office, there- 
fore, is to enact a law ; for without a law creating it no public office can 
exist. 

The Board of Public Works has created and filled a vast number of public 
offices, the aggregate salaries of which amount to more than $100,000. 

It has created the office of treasurer of the Board of Public Works, and 
filled it by the appointment of one of its own members, who receives a sal- 
ary from "the District government, (or from the improvement funds disbursed 
by the Board,) in addition to that paid by the General Government for his 
services as a member of the Board. That this office is as unnecessary asit 
is unauthorized by law, is clear beyond dispute. All the funds of the Dis- 
trict are first paid into the treasury of the District. The Board of Public 
Works, by the 37th section of the organic act, is required to '•'■disburse, upon 
their warrants, all moneys appropriated by the United States or by the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, or collected from property holders in pursuance of law, 
for the improvement of the streets, avenues," &c. Observe, they are not 
to receive or collect these money. The tricksters who engineered the organic 
act through the House wanted power to receive and collect these moneys, and 
got the bill through the House with such authority in it. But the Senate 
saw the trick, and struck out the words receive and collect leaving the Board 
the naked power to disburse. Yet these lawless plunderers are going on just 
as if their trick had never been discovered and frustrated, and just as if the 
bill had become a law in the form in which they engineered it through the 
House. 

The plain and indisputable meaning of the act is. that the Board shall dis- 
burse all improvement funds, by their own warrants, drawn upon the Dis- 
trict Treasurer, in favor of the contractors or others to whom the money may be 
due, from time to time. Bnt instead of this, they appoint a treasurer of 
their own, who draws the improvement funds from the District treasury in 
gross, and pays them out to contractors and laborers himself. 

Do you not see the object of this dodge? If the improvement funds were 
disbursed by warrants or drafts drawn upon the District Treasurer, that offi- 
cer would hold the vouchers, and there would be some means of ascertaining 
to whom the money was paid and for what it was paid. But under the sys- 
tem illegally adopted by the Board, all the vouchers are kept in the custody 
of the Board itself, or of so-called officers of its own creation, who hold their 
places at the will of that despotic oligarchy. They can manufacture, alter, 
suppress, or destroy these vouchers at their own pleasure, and no one can 
call them to account. 

Have I not made good my promise to demonstrate, that imder the system 
adopted by the Board of Public Works, the members of the Board may con- 
vert to their own private use any proportion they please of the public funds 
coming to their hands, without the least danger that the fraud will be detected 
and exposed ? Could this system have been devised for any other purpose 
than to facilitate embezzlement and prevent the detection thereof? 

The office of the Treasurer of the District is an office created by law. and 
the incumbent is required by law to give bonds. The office of treasurer of 
the Board of Public Works is not an office created by law, and has no legal 
existence ; and any bond that its so-called incumbent may give is a mere 
nullity, so far, at least, as his sureties are concerned. James A. Magruder 
may make default at any day for every dollar of public funds in his hands, 
and no part of the amount could be collected. You could not collect from 
him, personally, because, as I understand, he is worth nothing ; and you 
could not collect from his sureties, because a bond given for the faithful per- 
formance of the duties of an office that has no legal existence, is a mere 
nullity. 

UNPARALLELED EXTRAVAGANCE. 

The Hon. Mr. Koosevelt in his speech on our District affairs, in the House 



10 

of Representatives, May 17, 1872, presents a tabular statement, showing the 
amounts appropriated in eleven States, and in the District of Columbia, for 
" salaries of executive officers," "printing and advertising," and "contin- 
gencies," by which it appears that this District pays for salaries of District 
officers more than twice as much as either of said States pays for salaries of 
State officers — the salaries of judicial officers and pay of members and officers 
of the Legislature being excluded in both cases. And yet the great States 
of New York, Ohio and Illinois are included in the list. 

It appears that our Delegate in Congress obtained leave to print a speech 
in reply to Mr. Roosevelt, towards the close of the session, and that 
he has printed it, with several other speeches made by him, in "Boyd's 
Directory " for July. I never heard of this speech till Saturday last; 
but, from glancing over it, I find that it is an elaborate review of Mr. 
Roosevelt's speech. In reviewing this table, Mr. Chipman does not dispute 
the correctness of Mr. Roosevelt's figures, but he complains that it is not 
fair to compare the salaries paid to District officers in this District with the 
salaries paid to State officers in the States, inasmuch as our old municipal 
governments are merged in the new District government, which embraces 
in its list of officers many who perform municipal functions only. 

To give our Delegate the full benefit of this criticism, I read from Mr. 
Roosevelt's table, the expenses in three States, under the other two heads, 
excluding salaries of officers : 

Printing and advertising. Contingencies. Total. 

Ohio £75,300 613,250 $88,550 

Illinois 50,000 39,108 89,108 

New Hampshire 9,S30 2,099 11,929 

District of Columbia 143,635 200,000 343,633 

Gentlemen, compare these figures at your leisure, and you will see that 
this District pays out some eight thousand dollars more for printing and ad- 
vertising, and nearly four times as much for contingencies, as the three States 
of Ohio, Illinois, and New Hampshire. Besides, the item for printing and 
advertising in this District is put too low by Mr. Roosevelt, as the actual cost, 
for about seven months, was something more than $150,000, as was proven in 
the investigation. The great bulk of this expenditure was for advertising 
the loan bill and the Piedmont bill in fifteen newspapers, which expense was 
incurred in the space of ninety days. 

The committee could not quite approve of this extravagant expenditure 
for advertising, though really it is but a bagatelle compared with some of 
the unlawful expenditures by the Board, of which they took no notice in their 
report. The meanest thing they did was, while mildly censuring it, to at- 
tempt to shift the responsibility from the executive to the legislative depart- 
ment of the District government. The fact is, that not a single advertise- 
ment was ordered by the Legislature. With a few trifling exceptions, the 
advertising was all given out by the Governor or the Secretary, acting as 
Governor. 

Mr. Chipman, in his speech, also tries to shift the responsibility upon the 
Legislature. He says "the whole printing bill was paid by appropriations 
made by the Legislature, and to that extent was approved by the people." 
Mr. Chipman knows, or ought to know, that not one of the advertising bills 
was audited, paid, or ordered to be paid by the Legislature. A gross siun 
was appropriated to pay said bills, or such of them as should be found just 
and right, by the proper executive officers, of the District. Not one bill 
was paid, or could be paid, till approved by the proper executive officer to 
pass upon it. 

According to the views of the majority of the committee and of Mr. Chip- 
man, after the work had been done pursuant to the orders of the Governor, 
and the District authorities had received their quid pro quo in the earnest ad- 
vocacy by the newspapers of the four million loan, the Legislature ought to 
have refused to appropriate the money to pay the bills. They seem to ig- 
nore the old maxim that there should be " honor among thieves." 

Fellow citizens, reluctant as I am to trespass further upon your time, 1 am 
unwilling to close without addressing a few words 



11 

TO THE LABORING MEN OP THE DISTRICT. 

I mean those who perform the clay labor upon onr public works, for we are 
nearly all laboring men, in one sense or another; and I mean resident 
labouring men. 

You have sustained the Board of Public Works in their extravagant system 
of expenditures, by jrour influence and your votes. Considering the lights 
you had before you, I do not wonder at it, nor blame you. No doubt you 
thought you were doing the best for the promotion of your own interests ; 
and far be it from me to censure any class of citizens for supporting measures 
which they honestly believe are for their own good. But you were shame- 
fully deceived . You were told that all those who were opposed to the schemes 
of the Board of Public Works were the enemies of improvements, and that 
unless the Board should be sustained by the votes of the people, all public 
improvements would be stopped, and all laborers upon public works thrown 
out of employment, Pending the last fall canvass, every newspaper in the 
District, whether published daily, weekly, or semi-occasionally, was bought 
up by the distribution of $150,000 among them, to make these gross repre- 
sentations, or at least to keep silent. Their columns were all closed against 
any word of opposition to the schemes of the Board, or any word of 
explanation of the views and wishes of those who questioned the wisdom 
or expediency of their plans. You acted, no doubt, from the best lights 
you were permitted to have. 

But, as a matter of fact, every citizen of the District who opposed the 
schemes of the Board, so far as I know, (and few had better opportunities 
of knowing their views,) was in favor of a most liberal system of improve- 
ments. But they wanted these improvements carried out in pursuance of a 
well matured plan, and under the supervision of men who could be held to 
some sort of accountability for their acts. They were opposed to putting 
four millions of dollars into the hands of five men to expend as they pleased, 
without being accountable to any human being for the disposition made 
of the money. They were opposed to putting this large sum of money into 
the hands of these men, in such a way that they might appropriate a large 
share of it to their own private use, without the least danger of detection. 

And now I tell you that this Board has never, to this day, let the people 
know to whom they have paid one dollar in ten of the money thev have ex- 
pended. During the long investigation before the late whitewashing com- 
mittee, this information could not be dragged out of them. The memorialists, 
through their counsel, called repeatedly for a detailed statement of the ex- 
penditures of the Board, showing to whom, and/or what the money had been 
paid, but they never got any thing but evasive answers ; and the worst of 
it is, the majority of the commmittee, and your own Delegate, encouraged and 
upheld the District authorities in making evasive answers. 

After repeated attempts to obtain this information, we got from the Gov- 
ernor, on the 18th of March, 1872, what purported to be an answ T er to a 
call made by the committee on the 5th of that month, for a detailed state- 
ment of the moneys expended by the Board, for what expended, and to whom 
paid. This consisted of four tabular statements, which will be found on 
pages 450, 451, and 452 of the printed record of the testimony. These state- 
ments show that the Board had paid out for improvements in the whole Dis- 
trict, up to the 6th of March, the sum of $2,007,911.99; but they did not show 
to whom a single dollar of the money had been paid, although this was the 
very information that the memorialists had been trying so hard to get. 

When the counsel for the memorialists called the attention of the committee 
to the evasive character of this answer, and asked for another order for the 
production of the desired information, they were petulantly told by Mr. 
Eldridge that the information had been furnished half-a-dozen times, and 
Mr. Chip man reiterated the statement in an equally petulant manner. 

Yet I aver, and the record will bear me out in the assertion, that no such 
information ever was furnished throughout the investigation, and that for 
aught that was furnished, in response to our repeated calls, the Board may 
have put one-fourth of the said $2,007,000 into their own pockets or in- 
vested in real estate speculations for their own benefit. It was this profli- 



12 

gate system of placing millions of the people's money in the hands of a few 
men, without requiring them to give any account of what they do with it, 
that the memorialists objected to. 

Now, my laboring fellow-citizens of the District of Columbia, of what great 
benefit has the four million loan been to you? It is all expended now and 
you can estimate yonr gains. While a vast horde of officers have been re- 
ceiving their thousands, and contractors and ring men their tens and hundreds 
of thousands ; you have received employment for about one year at the 
miserable compensation of one dollar and a half a day for each working day. 

The Board of Public Works, as soon as they got the four-million loan in 
their hands, went to work to see how rapidly they could dispose of the fund. 
Without plan or system they fell to digging and delving, to ploughing and 
scraping and carting, as if their very salvation depended upon expending 
the largest possible amount of money in the shortest possible time. Such 
haste and inconsiderate rashness would have been productive of great waste 
and loss if the Board of Public Works had been composed of the most honest 
men living. 

One million of dollars is as much as they could have judiciously and eco- 
nomically expended during the first year. And no unprejudiced man, well 
informed on the subject, can doubt that one million of dollars judiciously 
and economically expended, would have made improvements far more bene- 
ficial to the District than all that the Board have done with four millions. 

The four million loan, as I have already stated, has been exhausted in less 
than nine months from the time it was made ; and no more money can be 
obtained from that source. The Board will doubtless, by hook or crook, 
find means to keep the public work in progress till after the October elec- 
tion ; and this is the utmost they, can do. For this reason the late Legis- 
lative Assembly changed the time for holding the election from November to 
October, because they knew they would not have money enough to keep the 
machine running till November, and it would not do to break down before 
the election. 

I want you all to remember my prediction, that very soon after the Octo- 
ber election the Board will begin to curtail the public work, 'and before 
winter sets in they will be without money, without credit, and hopelessly in 
debt. 

My laboring fellow-citizens, I advise you to get all you can out of the 
Board before the election ; for then your harvest will end. 

One effect of this indecent haste of the Board to expend the four millions 
as speedily as possible, was to bring into the District a great number of out- 
siders from the surrounding country, to divide the spoils with resident 
laborers. Suppose one million of dollars per annum had been expended, 
(which nobody would have objected to, if it had been expended judiciously, 
and under proper safeguards against peculation and embezzlement,) would 
it not have been better for you, laboring men of the District? This would 
have given employment to all resident laboring men of the District who 
could not have found other employment equally desirable ; and it would 
have given it for years to come. But by this indecent haste to do what ought 
to be the work of four or five years in one, the resources of the District, 
present and prospective, have been suddenly exhausted, and it must be many 
years before oiir public work can be resumed on any but a most limited scale, 
especialfy if the authors of this mischief are to be kept in power. You will 
find that by lending your aid to this rash and hasty policy, you have killed 
the goose that would have laid j^ou golden eggs for many years to come. 

But the worst of all is, you have aided in the establishment of a condition 
of things that must result in robbing you of your little homesteads, and in 
transferring them to the possession of a greedy and heartless ring of specu- 
lators upon your misfortunes. 

When I heard it suggested some months ago that the Board of Public 
Works, or some of its members, at least, were "implicated in a stupendous 
scheme to buy up the property that will be forced to sale to pay the special 
taxes assessed upon it, and that this might account for the persistency of the 
Board in a course that must result in forcing a vast amount of property upon 



13 

the market for taxes, I could not conceive it possible that civilized men coxild 
be actuated by motives so heartless and avaricious. More recent develop- 
ments, however, have shaken my incredulity. I cannot account for the' 
active part Which the Board took in defeating Gray's bill in the last Legis- 
lature on any other hypothesis than the existence of such a tcheme. That 
was an eminently just and merciful measure, and one that would have given 
small property holders a breathing spell, at least, before being turned out of 
houses and homes ; and it was a measure that might have been adopted 
without seriously curtailing the means of the Board for carrying out their 
" comprehensive system of improvement." The certificates, bearing ten per 
cent, interest, could have been sold to capitalists at par, or at a small dis- 
count. And what man, with a soul in his body, could hesitate for a moment 
between the alternatives of bearing his share of the loss of a small percent- 
age on these certificates, and witnessing the confiscation of the homesteads 
of hundreds, if not thousands, of his fellow-citizens? Every large taxpayer 
in the District, not identified in some way with the District government, was 
in favor of the passage of this bill ; and any pecuniary loss to the District, 
which would have resulted from it, would have fallen principally on that class 
of citizens. 

Whether the motives of the Board, in defeating the passage of Gray's bill, 
was to force the propert y of poor men to sale for taxes as speedily as possible, 
or not, every one must see that such will be the effect of it, 

THE REMEDY. 

In conclusion, fellow-citizens, what is our remedy for these intolerable 
evils? We must have a remedy of some kind, or we shall soon sink under 
the weight of profligacy and oppression imposed upon us. 

We have little prospect of relief, unless we can have a change in our 
national Administration. Our King owes its paternity to President Grant, 
and he nurses and protects it with all the affection that could be expected 
from a doting parent towards his own offspring. It is the assurance of per- 
fect safety in this quarter that emboldens its members to trample law and 
justice under foot with an audacity that is truly appalling. Their lawless 
enormities have been perpetrated here under the very eyes of the President, 
and he has turned a deaf ear to all complaints against them. The people 
might as well appeal to a maternal bear, to check the depredations of her 
hungry cubs upon their pigs and poultry, as appeal to President Grant for 
any relief against the rapacity of his pets of the Washington Ring. 

Right filially have these favorites reciprocated the paternal favors bestowed 
upon them. They stand ready to lend their aid, wherever it may be needed 
to promote the political interests of their great father, the President, or of 
members of Congress who have played into their hands. It is said that they 
sent money to New Hampshire last spring to aid in carrying the State elec- 
tion for the Administration party, but I do not know whether such was the 
fact or not. It is certain, however, that when Senator Patterson, of that 
State, chairman of the Senate Committee on the District, and one of the 
Ring defenders, found himself in a tight place in regard to his re-election a 
short time ago, the treasurer of the Board of Public Works, your Delegate 
in Congress, and several Icing men hastened to the rescue How much of 
the people's money the treasurer of the Board took with him we do not 
know, and of course never shall know, unless he or his associates choose to 
tell us. Fortunately the people of the District were represented there too, 
and Mr. Patterson had to go "where the woodbine twineth." 

When President Grant found, a few weeks ago, that the State of North 
Carolina was likely to break her shackles and declare her independence of 
federal domination, it has been charged that the Board sent a cargo of seven 
or eight hundred voters to reinforce the Administration cohorts in that elec- 
tion. I do not vouch for the truth of this, but they have a large stock of this 
material constantly on hand, at a dollar and a half per day, and will doubt- 
less be able to afford similar aid to several other States before the ides of 
November. 

In fact, I am well assured that hundreds of laborers have lately been seut 



u 

from this District to Pennsylvania, under pretence of going to work upon 
railroads, but really to vote at the approaching State election. A contractor 
complained a few days ago, in the hearing of a gentleman whose statement 
no one will doubt, that his hands were leaving him and going to Pennsyl- 
vania to work on the railroads, where they are to get from Cameron $2.50 
per day. He stated that about twenty of his hands had gone, and expressed 
the opinion that about 800 had already left the District for Pennsylvania. 
These are facts that can he, proved if any one denies them. 

It would appear that there might be some difficulty in carrying out this 
fraud, inasmuch as our District and Pennsylvania vote on the same day. But 
our King have an easy way of overcoming such little difficulties. All they 
have to do is, for every registered voter who has gone to Pennsylvania, to 
put in a repeater here, to cast a ballot in his name. That will make the books 
all right ; and who can detect the fraud ? This game of false voting in the 
name of registered voters who are absent, has been played here before, and 
one member of our first Legislative Assembly obtained his majority by such 
a fraud. At least, some of his supporters have boasted of having secured 
his election in that way. So long as this co-operative, mutual aid arrange- 
ment is kept up between the King and the Administration, you see how idle 
it is to hope for any relief by the Avay of the White House. 

We believe, however, that nothing short of Plantamour's comet can pre- 
vent a change in the Administration from taking place on the 4th of March 
next. 

We must have a thorough reform in the organization of our District gov- 
ernment. The people must have the right to elect all the members of bath 
branches of the Legislative Assembly, as well as their Governor and Secre- 
tary. The Legislature, thus composed wholly of representatives elected by 
the people, must have the power to decide vthat other District officers we 
shall have, how they shall be chosen, and what shall be their powers and 
duties. 

The present Board of Public Works must be absolutely abolished, and the 
Legislative Assembly, representing K the people in both its branches, must 
have power to determine by law [what officers shall have charge of our 
public works, how they shall be chosen, and what powers they shall 
possess. 

With these changes in our organic law, we should have the essential ele- 
ments of local sell-government. But how are we to obtain these changes? 
■ As a first step, we must elect a Delegate to Congress who will represent 
the interests of the people, and not be the mere tool and defender of the 
Board of Public Works. He must be a man who believes that some reform 
in our District government is needed; and not one who believes that'system 
perfect, and the Board of Public Works infallible. 

Manifestly our present Delegate does not fill this bill. That he is not in 
favor of any change in our organic act is evidenced by the fact that during 
the last session, when the subject was so long under investigation, he never 
proposed a single amendment or alteration -of it. That he believes the 
Board of Public Works have not transcend* l.tl law and have done nothing 
wrong, is evidenced by the fact that he def led them on every charge or 
complaint made against them with all the zeal of a paid counsel. That lie 
believes the Board infallible, is evidenced by the fact that he introduced no 
bill to limit their powers in the slightest degree, though many wholesome 
propositions to that jend were submitted to him during the session. 

Those who believe that our present system of government is perfect, and 
that the Board of Public Works has done nothing wrong in the past, and can 
do nothing Avrong in the future, though restrained by no law, should vote 
for Mr. Chipman as a lit representative of their views. 

But for any one who believes that any reform in our system of local gov- 
ernment is needed — who believes that the Board of Public Works has 
transcended its powers in the past — or Avho deems it unsafe to intrust any 
-five men with the exercise of absolutely unlimited and despotic powers over 
the property of the people, to vote for him would, be inconsistent in the 
highest imaginable degree. 



15 

As well might a shepherd employ a Avolf to guard his sheepfold, as for the 
friends of reform in our local government to vote for a Delegate to Congress 
■who has given such indubitable evidence that he is opposed to any reform, 
and who has labored with so much zeal to prevent any change, and pre- 
serve the present status of our affairs. 

Against General Chipman, personally, I have not a word to say. So far 
as I know or believe, in all the relations of private life he is a gentleman 
above reproach. But I make no apology for commenting upon and criti- 
cising his official course, especially when he is asking us to re-elect him. 

We ought, at the approaching election, if possible, to secure a majority of 
the friends of reform in our House of Delegates, not because of any positive 
good they could do, under our present system, but for the purpose of check- 
ing pernicious legislation. 

The Board of Public Works now admit that they must have large ap- 
propriations from Congress to enable them to complete their '•'comprehen- 
sive system of improvements." They are actually letting out contracts 
for immense jobs of work to be paid [for when Congress shall make an 
appropriation for that purpose. Of course none of this work will be done 
until the appropriation is made. So this is a mere attempt on the part of 
the Board to control the disposition not only of the funds now on hand, or 
which may come into the treasury under existing laws, but to put into the 
hands of their associates of the Eing all funds that inay be appropriated bj r 
Congress hereafter. If Congress should appropriate five millions of dollars 
for the improvements of the"Di strict at the next session, rely upon it King 
men would come forward with contracts executed in advance of the ap- 
propriation sufficient to absorb the whole sum. All such contracts, how- 
ever, arc utterly null and void under the thirty-seventh section of the 
organic act. 

It is now agreed on all hands that we must have aid from Congress, to 
put the cities of Washington and Georgetown in a decently habitable condi- 
tion. To finish up the the work already commenced, so as to make our 
streets even passable, will require a sum of money wholly beyond the ability 
of the people of the District to raise. 

Now, how are Ave to get this indispensable aid from Congress? Can we 
get it by sending General Chipman back, to say to Congress that the system 
of government they imposed upon us, without our consent, is just the sys- 
tem that the people desire to live under? That the men appointed by the 
President to rule over us are the best men that could have been appointed, 
and the people approve of everything they have done? 

What would be the answer to such an appeal? Would not Congress say, 
as you have had everything exactly as you wanted it, and have undertaken 
to do more than you can go through with,, if you have contracted a larger 
debt than you can pay, it is your own fault, and you must bear the conse- 
quences of your folly. You had no promise that the General Government 
would pay your bills, and have no right now to present them to us for 
payment. 

But suppose you send a delegate to Congress who will put our case on its 
true ground ; who will say to Congress, you imposed a system of govern- 
ment upon us, in which the people have no A'oice. The President appointed 
men to rule over us, in whose selection we had no agency. These men 
inaugurated a system of improvements far beyond the ability* of the people 
to complete. By a rash and headlong improvidence and extravagance, they 
have exhausted all our resources, present and prospective, burthened us 
with a heavy debt, and put our streets in such a condition that it will re- 
quire the expenditure of a large sum of money to render the city habita- 
ble. These acts were not the acts of the people of the District, but the 
acts of the Federal Government, through its own appointed agents. The 
debt Ave oAA'e is not a debt contracted by the people of the District, or by 
then- agents or representatives. It is a debt imposed upon us by officers 
appointed to rule over us, and to manage our affairs, by the Federal Gov- 
ernment ; and it is, therefore, essentially the debt of the Federal Govern 



16 

ment. On these just and equitable grounds, we appeal to you to help ue 
pay jt oft, and to help us put our streets in a passable conditon. 

Be assured, fellow-citizens, that until our case is put squarely before 
Congress on this true ground, we shall get no efficient aid from that body. 
But when it is boldly and ably urged on these grounds, the justice of our 
appeal will become so manifest, that sooner or latter Congress must come 
to our relief. 

King contractors, however, should take no encouragement from this pros- 
pect. If Congress should lend its aid to put our cities in a habitable con- 
dition, or even aid us in paying off the public debts for which the property 
of the people is legally bound, it does not follow that they will appropriate 
money for the relief of ring contractors, who, with their eyes wide open, 
have entered into illegal contracts with the Board. The Board can now 
make no contract to bind the District to the payment of a single dollar, be- 
cause all appropriations for improvements are exhausted. And why shoidd 
Congress be expected to do anything for the relief of contractors who become 
participes criminis with the Board in violating the law? 

And now, fellow-citizens, I conclude by putting to you this practical ques- 
tion : Is it Avorth while to attempt to stem this flood of usurpation, extrava- 
gance, and corruption at the approaching October election ? Is it advisable 
" to take arms against this sea of troubles, and, by opposing, (try to,) end 
them ? ' ' Or is our case so utterly hopeless that there is no other course left 
but tamely to submit to be robbed of our last dollar? 

Undoubtedly nineteen-twentieths of all the taxpayers of the District who 
are not identified with the District government or with the contractors' ring 
are earnestly in favor of reform. Have the Board of Public Works the non- 
taxpayers so completely under their control that with the aid of the army of 
District officers and contractors they can certainly outvote us ? 

I believe if we could have a perfect concert of action among all the friends 
of reform in the District, so that they would register and vote with the same 
unanimity that the Board of Public Works will regisler and vote their em- 
ployees, victory would be ours. 

That we have a majority of the legal voters of the District with us, I have 
no doubt. If they will all vote in unison they can carry the election, unless 
defeated by fraud. But first and foremost, we must register to a man. If 
we neglect this duty, as we did last fall, the election will be but an idle 
ceremony And in order to have a full registration, we must have a perfect 
organization. We must have canvassers at every place of registration who 
will have the names of all the friends of reform in the District, and they 
must see that every name is registered. 

My fellow-citizens, now is the time for us to put forth our strength. Now 
is the time to strike for deliverance. Now is the time to take advantage of 
the great tidal-wave that is rising all over the country against the centrali- 
zation of power, and in favor of local self-government. If we launch our 
cause upon this tide, and in unison pull at the oars like men determined to 
win, I confidently believe we shall ride safely into the harbor of reform <m 
the second Tuesday of October, with victory inscribed upon our banners. 












^ 



